Tina Pisnik vs. Dragana Zaric
by Prip
This match looked like it would be rather interesting, with Tina
Pisnik having something to prove to herself and Dragana Zaric
trying to make her mark on the tour. The Yugoslavian certainly has
the right game, and the beginnings of the shots to make it work,
but at the moment plays very streaky tennis, frustrating to both
player and spectator alike. Of course, this may well disappear as
she gains more experience in bigger tournaments, but at the moment,
it is still impossible to tell.
Dragana won the toss, and opted to receive. Even during the warmup,
it looked apparent that both her overhead and serve definitely need
working on. Tina herself has a pretty strong serve when she's having
a good day, which she was. She managed to get 3 service return errors
from Zaric, who was going for too much on the return, and hit one
service winner to open the match. Dragana struggled on her service
games, as she would throughout the match, and actually double-faulted
twice in her first service game to go down 0-2. She managed to get
her act together, and played a good solid attacking game to get the
break back. A double-fault from Pisnik didn't hurt, either.
It looked apparent that things were going to be difficult for
Dragana. With her service returns being much stronger than her
serve, her plan was to consistently break serve and then hold serve
to take the set, sort of the opposite of most players' games.
Unfortunately for her, Tina had come well prepared, and her first
serve percentage was definitely working for her today.
Nevertheless, Dragana continued to play her attacking game. She is
neither a baseliner nor a net player, but a combination of both. It
is good to see that she has a good sense of when to come in to net
and doesn't hesitate to do so. She sets up points well, and has the
potential to open opportunities for herself. Unfortunately, the
youngster tends to get a little overexcited when it comes to "the
kill", and often misses what would and certainly should have been the
winner.
She got the break back on Tina's serve, and come out of the changeover
with a bounce in her step, while on the other side of the court, Tina
looked all business. Dragana was determined to hold serve this time,
and made up for her mediocre serve by really belting the ball,
pressuring Tina's sliced backhand. She had all the opportunity in the
world, but kept missing the final shot. Tina got the break again, and
this time had no trouble holding serve to go ahead 4-2.
The rest of the match was consistently the same story, and Tina's
serves saved the day for her. She took the match 6-4 6-3, capping it
off with a nice passing shot. Dragana now only had the doubles
qualifying with Maja Palaversic to look forward to, which she would
play not long after and lose to Evie Dominikovic and Aubrie Rippner.
The Yugoslavian heads out to Melbourne on the 9th, and will definitely
look to do better there.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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